by tracey

At the Santa Barbara Beautiful awards on Sunday they honored Phyllis Di Piccioto for a lifetime contribution to the community. Founder of the Santa Barbara Film Festival and involved in so many other ways, I appreciated how simple she said it was - "I showed up." While not everyone shows up like Phyllis, it struck me that this is a really important lesson. As Sister Corita wrote, "The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things." Show up, work, try, fail, try again. Keep at it and eventually you'll catch on.

Santa Barbara is such a truly beautiful place, with so many people who contribute to make it a place with a soul. While it's easy to see that at an event at the Music Academy honoring the best of "Santa Barbara Beautiful," I try to remember that it's beautiful because they showed up, worked, failed, tried again and, in the end, made a lasting contribution.